Festival to stage an extra bumper contest

Details of the rescheduled Cheltenham Festival were shored up when the racecourse issued a complete plan for the meeting yesterday - and punters have been handed an extra treat in the form of an additional race.

This year's Festival, which now takes place on April 17th19th, will have 21 races - seven on each day - after the £20,000 Doncaster Bloodstock Sales/EBF Mares Bumper, due to have been run at the original April meeting, was installed as the last race on the final day of the meeting.

The Cathcart Chase will move from being the second-last race on the final day to the same slot on the first day.

Times of races have been altered to fit in with Channel 4's coverage at Newmarket but all prize-money and race-titles remain the same.

Entries for all 21 races will close on Tuesday April 3rd, with weights unveiled for the handicap races seven days later.

The conditions for all races will stay the same, except for the Weatherbys Champion Bumper, in which horses will be allowed to have run in the Martell Champion Bumper at Aintree as well as a maximum of four other contests.

Marlborough remains on target for the Tote Cheltenham Gold Cup but is very likely to sidestep Aintree's Grand National meeting if the rearranged festival goes ahead.

The Robert Ogden-owned nine-year-old is unbeaten in two outings this term following victories at Cheltenham and Wincanton and Ogden's racing manager Barry Simpson stated yesterday that he will miss a tilt at the Martell Cup due to the short time period between the Aintree and Cheltenham meetings.

However, See More Business, who is owned by Ogden in partnership with Paul Barber, is on course to attempt to follow up last year's win in the Martell Cup before attempting to repeat his 1999 victory in the Tote Cheltenham Gold Cup two weeks later.

Simpson said: "Paul (Nicholls) is very keen on him going for both events. He's also entered in the Whitbread and he is very likely to run in two out of three of those races."